WHAT'S IT LIKE TO LOSE A WAR? 15-11-05

By Toby Higgins
November 15 2005

Due to yet another international friendly week, there is very, very little Boro related news to discuss. Basically, Coop’s is finally considering retiring, Downing wants to be in the World Cup squad and Boateng was apparently injured, then wasn’t.

He then went and played four minutes for Holland against Italy on Saturday.

The big football story of the weekend though is undoubtedly England 3 Argentina 2. So good a result was it that some of the bookmakers have now made England second favourites for the World Cup at 7/1, behind holders Brazil who are at 4/1 to retain their crown.

While the England display was certainly exciting, anyone naïve enough to think that a World Cup match against Argentina would end like that must be warned now not to expect a repeat in the summer. No Argentine defence is going to leave itself exposed so that in the dying seconds of a World Cup game, Michael Owen can head home a winner. But we can all dream.

The number of people who were on Radio 5 Live after the game praising Eriksson was amazing. I would love to hear what the very same people were saying after England lost to Northern Ireland and then in Denmark.

I really don’t care who is in charge of England, I’d support my club over my country every day of the week and find talk of England managers fairly boring. So instead of making my judgements on him, I’ll leave it to the radio-phone in hypocrites and fair-weather fans. Strange how you didn’t hear anyone standing by Eriksson after the defeat in Belfast though…

The striking resemblance between England and Boro is uncanny. Around the same time that England lost to Northern Ireland, Boro lost to Sunderland and soon after Boro beat Man Utd, England beat Argentina. Both Boro and England have so called “big names” who frequently under perform, and strangely enough, they both have Steve McClaren.

Overlooking McClaren - something the F.A. themselves might consider doing - there could be several reasons for the correlation between both sides suffering poor defeats and superb wins.

First of all, is it possible that the favourites simply underestimate their opposition? Or lack the required motivation to beat them? It shouldn’t happen, but easily could. Man Utd came to the Riverside around the time of their Champions League trip to France and their home tie with Chelsea. Might they have seen us as an easy game when looking at their forthcoming fixtures?

It’s hard to see how that could apply to our game with Sunderland or England’s defeat in Ireland though. No player should have been lacking motivation for those games. It could have been down to the pressure of playing a lesser nation or club, and the fear of failure that creates nerves. Who can blame them? Everyone fears the ridicule associated with defeat to Sunderland.

For me, tactics and mentality are the main factors. When a Sunderland team come to Boro they play for a draw, with ten men behind the ball with the hope of nicking a goal… or two. Portsmouth and Charlton have also done it to us this season.

Whereas when Arsenal and Man Utd arrive, the shoe is on the other foot. It is suddenly us who load up the midfield to hang on for the point and steal a goal. The results this season show we can’t break teams down. But it’s not that easy to do.

England face the same problem, but have the extra quality to break teams down. Not one side in the World Cup qualification group ever took the game to England, but instead limited England’s space and were happy to let England break them down. Which more often than not, England did.

But Argentina came out to embarrass England, score a hatful of goals and head back across the Atlantic having showed their South American neighbours Brazil that they would be contenders this summer. But they made the crucial mistake of underestimating England.

And what a big mistake it proved to be. This game was by no means friendly, but a moment that showed the light-hearted side to the rivalry with Argentina was the song boomed out by the England fans;

What’s it like?
What’s it like?
What’s it like to lose a war?
What’s it like to lose a war?

Next Sunday we play host to Fulham and given our current patchy league form, a score draw could well be on the cards. Let’s hope that Sunday is the turning point in our topsy-turvy season so far.

Same time next week… UP THE BORO!